#21 Practical Matters for Phsically Challenged Gardeners

Good Morning and happy Spring everyone! :D

Yeah, the seizure thing. Used to it as it is part of my life. BUT always happy when there is very minor, little and/or no damage. Now everyone gets why I neither work nor drive despite appearing to be 'able bodied'. Also why I get quite frustrated and sad trying to explain all the time or to make people understand why I AM disabled when it isn't 'obvious' to the naked human eye.

Honestly these things hurt more than any 'damage' I do myself physically.

O.K. enough about that.

Hoping Fenny is alright and nothing more will happen in regards to her in terms of her seizures. Poor dog. :( Feel so bad. Neighbor should be shot. As I mentioned electric 'fences' are safe, gentle and effective when it comes to keeping pets and/or livestock within your property while giving them the ability to 'roam' freely. I have my fingers crossed for Fenny and her recovery.

OMG...on installing the tile. No hard to comprehend or 'do' but the labor is so physically excruciating and we are sooooo tired. Our hands and knees (despite gloves and pads) are so dry and thus scraped up. Our backs and legs are hurting, blah...blah...blah...piss and moan. HUUUGE Eyeroll. We still have the living room to do. When we will get to the 2 baths who knows.

Oh and the dust!!! We all know what an anal retentive, obsessive-compulsive, neat freak I am. Sigh, we won't talk about the dust and my mental and nervous state of being at the present moment.

Zoe seems to be handling it fine. Annoyed she can't be in every room with us and is frequently told "Move dog!" or "Go lie down." but she is the size of a small pony and we have furniture everywhere in every which way and don't need her stepping in mortar, etc. Poor dog. All in all she's been a good sport though. She's been getting her morning walks and hugs and pets as we walk by. I think as long as we're not packing boxes she's good! (LOL).

Gotta go back to work. GROAN!!!

Here's what greeted me for Spring yesterday afternoon. :D Torch cactus in all it's glory. :D The two on the right will be blooming again very soon. Here's a photo from the street into my yard also just to give you an idea of how big the flower is and how visible it is from a distance.

Peace. Out.
TTC

Wow! I love that color. Your plants and yard are SO different from the way they look back here.

Oh right, I forgot about the dust! There's a line in How the Grinch Stole Christmas where he's talking about how he hates the Whos and he says "Noise noise noise noise!" That just popped into my head with "dust dust dust dust!"
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Good Morning,
another day in the tile-grout mine. Sigh, huuuge eye roll! But it is going well as we have over 1/3rd of the living room tile mortared. My husband will be mortaring another 'chunk' of the living room while I put grout down on what has already been laid. We are 'shuffling' the furniture, what hasn't been placed in the extra rooms, around from space to space as we work in increments. More than all this labor I am absolutely dreading the cleaning of the house afterwards! Dust, dust, dust, dust! SIGH!!!

As for the plants, yes they are incredibly different. They fascinated me completely and utterly when I moved here and captivated me with just how different and bizarre they were. I had never seen anything like them either. Had I not known I was on Earth in the S.W., I would have thought I was on Mars! The sheer scale of them as 'plants' NOT trees like the Saguaros, the shapes, their sense of symmetry, line, rhythm and proportion was intriguing.

I had never grown up with these or visited the S.W. personally prior to moving here. Although I served at Ft. Huachuca, AZ in the military I had been off the base very little and when I was it was relatively sub-urban and to the mall! (LOL)

These plants were not the usual flora and fauna I had grown up with. Elms, Oaks, Maples, Ash, etc. and the explosion of color in the fall. Fall is my favorite season and every year my mother sends me a shoe box of leaves to enjoy! I send her cotton bolls, seeds and pods--which is a major crop in AZ! Who knew, right?

Spring and into Summer I grew up with Daffodils, Narcissus, Lilacs, Tulips, Lily of the Valley, Hyacinths, Lilac, Iris, Crocus, Peonies, Crab apple, Apple and Cherry blossoms. Here the blooms come out in winter and early spring. Huge, brilliant color in a 'brown-brownish/greenish' place. Only fleeting and transient;; a week at the most---maybe a month or two if it is a Saguaro. The bloom you see on my Torch Cactus above is already withered, and ready to drop off.

There is no fragrance to the flowers despite the temptation to bury your face in the bloom in anticipation of something wonderful. The humming birds have a field day with them, however, and are an extra bonus. :D

The plants 'grow' and spread and reproduce all year long EXCEPT summer where they go dormant and into hibernation as opposed to winter! Let's not contrast the heat ( 80 degrees in January and 90 degrees in February) vs. the cold, mountains of snow, sleet, freezing rain and Artic temps all day long.

I never dreamt that something could stand in a 100 degree plus heat all day long and STILL be green WITHOUT gallons of water everyday. Most of them 'hate' water so to speak. Bone dry lack of humidity 3%-13% versus thick 40%-70% walls of it back East. (This I AM loving!) Rain is an 'event' here! We stand outside and play in it like kids! (LOL).

Here's some new pics and some I'm sure you've seen before of exactly why I fell in love with cacti, aloes and agaves! I do, however, still envy your explosion of seasonal color and scent!


Boggles the mind when you think about these things and even more so when you think about what I grew up with in Ohio and PA. These were the reasons I got into gardening. Mostly because the plants were just 'freaks' and I was intrigued by them and their survival mechanisms.

Pics-1-3 a rather unusual Agave I spotted in a public parking lot.
Pic 4 Look at the size of the plant in the red pot. Now compare that to the fact my husband is 6'6"!
Pic 5-me by the little 'bubble bed' I planted. All so cute and tiny, all so different; all so many different blooms on them.

Here's some more weirdoes.

Pics 1-3This plant is in my bubble bed. It is 3" tall and 5" around. That is the flower stalk. Next photos is the FLOWER!!! Its bloom only lasted 2 days. That is normal!

Pics 4-5 The century plant (Agave americana) Takes approximate 20-30 years for it to get this big and grow a stalk. Once it grows the stock that's it; the end of life. The whole plant dies. Under it, however, are a kazillion pups (new baby plants) Again for contrast I am 5'3" and my husband is 6'6"

Here's the rest of the century plant and some more freaky plants

A few more that seem stranger than fiction!
1-- Century plant 'pup'; kazillion more around and under it! This one is about the size of a full grown, ready to plant in your yard 6 gallon pot agave!
2- The end of life.
3-- Stalks of a century plant (A. weberii). century plant stalks are about 30-40 feet tall and rival telephone poles and street lights!
4-- The prickly pear as big (almost) as a mini van!
5-- Above p.pear's pads and fruit.

Coming up the last of the "Feed Me Seymour" plant show! :D

The last of the photos...of course I can post more but NOW you get an idea of why I took up S.W. gardening and why I am enamored of such strange objects as these!

Pic 1--Ocotillo in winter before it gets its green leaves in winter, red plumes on top in spring, yellow flowers in summer and then back to being bare again in winter!
Pic 2--Teddy Bear Cholla; nothing soft or fuzzy about it! big 'chunks' drop off , blow away and not to mention 'stick' to you like burrs.
Pic 3--My neighbors cactus. Not a barrel. something similar but forget what it is called.
Pic 4--Agave Ferox in a public parking lot

Pic 5--Your friend and mine...WISE CACTUS!!!

When I asked Wise Cactus what is 'beauty' and what makes something or someone beautiful he said to me, "Agave, remember, beauty is a siren. It calls to us but rarely tells the truth. No matter how dangerous it can be we race perilously towards it because whatever deceives seems to produce a magical enchantment in our lives."

Peace. Out.
TTC

Song for the day: "You're the Reason Our Kids are Ugly!" by Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn duet.

Oh, I wrote a long post about the SW and NM and TX but it's gone. Sorry.

Hi,
Happy Easter...early. Ready to drop dead yet another day. GRRROOOOOAN!
Time for hot shower, hot shower, hot shower, and sleep. Our friend, Tim is coming tomorrow to help us. YIPPEEEEEE!!!! We are almost done with the living room but still have plenty of grouting to do then of course the repeated rinses. Oh...let's not forget the moving back of furniture. GRRROOOOAN!!!

Looking forward to reading you post on NM, TX and the S.W.

Don't feel bad. Wrote quite a few myself and they 'disappeared'.

Going to bed as I am utterly exhausted.
Have a good weekend/ Easter
Hugs.
Peace. Out.
TTC

Bravo, Agave. on working so hard and so well. This will make you proud and happy for years, for a long as you own this house,

Did you show us a picture of what the tile looks like?

YIPPEE!!!
It is finished!!! Tell you more about the ordeal later but it IS done. Tomorrow is clean up and putting furniture back. I WILL take a pic for you and post them. Best part of all, my husband and I didn't even kill each other...we didn't even argue!

Happy Easter.
AG

Wowee, Agave, I am highly impressed. Weren't you only 1/4 done a few days ago? I am extremely impressed! Oh, I said that already. With your orderly nature, you can probably do projects like that extremely successfully. Maybe you should and your husband should start a second career of installing tile. He could do the driving.

Nuts, I don't know. I know you want to do more, or maybe feel guilty about not working. I haven't worked since about 1991. Infinitely long ago. I do feel guilty for not working, though.

Morning.
GROOOAN! Feel like someone took a baseball bat to every part of my body and my hands look like they were run through a meat grinder BUT we are done! We both just sit here and blink. A friend helped us 3 days but each day he was only able to stay about 4 hours. Still we'd be a day or day and a half behind if it wasn't for him. Showed neighbors and even they were duly impressed. They thought we were only doing the kitchen!

Photos below.

Have to give a lot of credit to Dave. He is a Virgo so he has a very neat, fussy, and particular but systematic and efficient way of doing things and 'catches' on quickly. I'm a Taurus so I'm the 'artist' and esthetics person. I decided on the color and direction the tile would take and how it would fit in the room. I did the chalk lines. We have virtually NO small or 'cut to fit' pieces! He followed laying each tile down and putting in the spacers (for the grout line).

Because this was so organized we whipped through the work. He began to mortar the pieces in place in the kitchen and I (and Tim) removed the carpet from the living room and scraped up the glue and took up the carpet tacks. It takes 4 hours for the mortar to dry and the tiles to set so at this time we had lunch and walked the dog.

We then switched places. Dave moved onto the living room laying tile and I went to the kitchen and began the grout. So this is how we managed to get through it so very quickly. Also the more you do it the faster you get! By the time he was done I had only half the living room to finish grouting and that's when Tim helped. The next two days we wiped, wiped, wiped up grout and rinsed, rinsed and rinsed the tile. Last day---Easter, we gave a final wipe down and buff and then put furniture back.

No! I do not ever want to do this kind of grunt labor for a living. We probably could but I have no desire to based on how we both feel and have felt physically the last few days regardless of how satisfying the results or sense of accomplishment. We still have plenty of left over tile in the garage.

We did it because the cost of labor was obscene! Lowest estimate was $3.00 a square foot up to $8.00 at the highest or $75.00 an hour at the cheapest! ROFL!!! Let's see our tile was .78 cents for 17" x 17" tiles and our living room is 20' x 15' and our kitchen is 13' x 14'! You do the math! Considering all inclusive of tile, grout, mortar, tile cutter, floats, buckets, sponges, spacers, and truck rental for $29.99 for 4 hours and a $89.00 delivery fee (remind me to tell you about that, it's hysterical) and feeding Tim it cost us $1,800.00 to do our tile. Uh...do you really think we're going to pay well over $2,000,00 for labor we can do ourselves? YEAH...RIGHT! ROFL!!!

We still need to do the 2 bathrooms. Thank God they're small but they will involve a large amount of intensive cutting and curves rather than straight edges. we have also decided to continue the tile from the living room down the hallway to the laundry room.

The laundry room we decided we are going to buy a 'nice' quality linoleum that matches and put down there. It's a laundry room! I think of bleach, muddy shoes, the dog's area, wet coats (on occasion...LOL), dust, dirt coming in from the garage (attached) so it seems nice linoleum is more practical in there as far as cleaning, and if it gets 'stained'/ruined or something gets dropped on it, it isn't such a big deal.

The carpet we have is soooo old, ugly and regardless of how many times we steam clean it, it is beyond resuscitation. Thus the reason we are going to do the hallway. The less carpet the better! We are only going to carpet the bedrooms. Uh...eye popping the expense on that! YIKES!!! That will absorb 1/2 to 2/3rds of our next years income tax refund. Again we can lower the cost by buying the carpet and padding ahead of time and removing and disposing of our old carpet and tacks because companies looooove to charge huge amounts of money for this BUT we can't lay and stretch carpet ourselves so we're at their mercy and prices.
:(

I would love to do more outside the home in terms of a 'real job' and Tim, funny enough is a Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist for our local SS Administration but even he said I fall into category 3 which is extremely limited in capacity, very high in terms of special work accommodations, definitely hobbled by an inability to drive, no public transportation and he also confided in me that regardless of my filing a workers comp claim or not with my employer they will do everything they can to fire me and get me out. Sad reason for this is that any company has 'liability' insurance. The more 'incidents' and 'accidents' and employee has from getting a boo boo on their finger and needing a Band-Aid to something as serious as my condition while at work and the more paper work that is generated concerning them the more a risk I become. THEY, by law have to give me worker's comp regardless of my asking for it, claiming I won't file or be willing to sign saying so. Even if I did these things and suffered consequences a little later health wise they're still liable. I don't have to get a lawyer. All that has to happen is for my doctor to say, "Yep, that time she bonked her head at work 3 years ago is why she can't stand up now" and the company will get nailed when SS reviews my case and abilities.

So...now I finally know why the grocery store was on such a major campaign to fire me even though I was an outstanding employee, one their best and most efficient workers, had excellent attendance and caused no problems.

Tim told me not to take it personally. It IS what they do to EVERYONE with a problem. Sad isn't it? Really, really sad that people like me who want to work and can/could in some capacity aren't allowed to but yet am being penalized by the same corporations that want to throw everyone off of social programs and disability and don't understand why we have a 'welfare nation' so to speak.

I dunno...you tell me?

So I no longer...thanks to Tim, feel guilty about not working. I look at it this way, I DO 'work' so to speak. I take care of my home, my garden, my dog, my neighbor (Shirley, elderly...I help her a lot), I am a good friend. I pay my taxes. I am not a social derelict who gets into trouble or causes the tax payers money to institutionalize me. I am not morally bankrupt.

I get involved with charities and causes I believe in. I do not vegetate or wallow in self pity. I enrich my mind whenever possible. I create things of beauty like art and a garden. This is MY purpose and way of giving back to others and those around me.

These are things even the abled body people don't or won't do and they CAN. They have the money, they have the body and minds capable of it. They have a family who will support them both emotionally and financially. Yet they do nothing but take up oxygen, piss, moan and bitch and complain and do not one thing worthwhile or productive for themselves or others around them.

I think you work very hard to! Think of all the writing, research and presentation of knowledge you contribute to gardeners via DG! Now that's work! think about what you do for family, friends and community! How long have you been married? Hmmm....talk about work!

Wise Cactus say, "Yep, don't sell yourself short. You Carrie work hard! Little Agave you work hard. You work harder than any people I know! Reason being you no longer take things for granted when it comes to relying on your bodies. You rely on your brains. Most people don't!"

Some views of living room and kitchen. (You don't get to see the side where the appliances are due to all the crap still on the counters that need to be cleaned up...eye roll! ) We won't talk about dusting either.

Biggest irony of all when it comes to this tile and all of our hard work is that my living room is 20' x 15' and I got a 10'x 13' area rug and padding so if I have a seizure I don't crack my head open on all of my lovely tile. ROFL!!!

Peace. Out.
TTC

Wow!!! Agave, that looks so good! Makes me want to revisit the idea pf tiling the back bedroom. We put adhesive tile down 20 years ago but it is peeling and looks disgusting. I guess it was appropriate for the time; I had 2 little kids with asthma and no money. Now I have two adult children, an empty house and money is less of a problem. The peeling old tile still looks disgusting.

I picked up the new car yesterday, It has a lot of bells and whistles! We got this particular set of options because we couldn't budge on some of them. Like, I needed leather seats so I can slide across with transfer board. To get leather seats you had to get the top bunch of options which include some pretty silly things like a DVD player for the back seat. I feel like we should go out and recruit some kids to ride in the back with us. It also has a really decent sound system, but also
-Bluetooth enabled everything. I can direct the phone to call anybody with my voice and hear the call over the car speakers
-heated mirrors. steering wheel so no frosted windows and mirror in the winter
-back-up camera
-side mirrors that flash when someone is in your blind spot
-a bunch of stuff i haven't figured out yet


The blue van is the old one, the red one is new!

NIIIICE ride!!! :D
Sounds like it has everything you need and then some. I think you'll be quite happy with it and enjoy driving around doing the things you need to do and getting to where you want to go.
Since I no longer live in a cold climate where it snows or gets freezing rain I forgot about the thrill of having heated windows that defrosted. Defrosting mirrors are something new but makes sense. I also forgot about having to start your car up a half hour early so it was warm and toasty as well as defrosted and the engine ready to 'go' before you could drive it. That's o.k., here we do the same thing but it is running the air conditioning!

If you want a good chuckle we still have a snow brush/ice scraper in the back of our car...LOL We keep it around for fond memories. Also we've shown it to a few natives and some Hawaiians (many live here and are 'natives') and asked if they knew what it was. They were dumbfounded and couldn't guess what it was for! Imagine that? Such a strange concept for me as I have many a memory of frozen toes due to wet shoes and chapped hands due to wet gloves from standing outside in the sleet scraping, scraping, scraping...

The sound system seems to be awesome. My husband would love it. He's the electronics, computer, stereo, t.v. freak and half the house looks like spaghetti or like the Borg (Star Trek reference) have started to assimilate. Resistance on my part is futile! He got ahold of our car and put a subwoofer in the trunk, new c.d. player, speakers, etc. I'm sure if there was something else he could possible squeeze in there he would! He would be quite jealous of this feature you have. :D

LOOOVE the red too. In case you haven't noticed from the pictures of the potted plants and accent things in my home I have a 'thing' for red. :D I commend you on your color choice.

Also jealous of the Blue Tooth. Very useful tool. I get really irked when I see people texting and driving or we are driving for a long while and I watch out the window and see the person next to me having an very extended conversation. When I drove and presently my husband are both guilty of cell phone chats but quick ones. NEVER lengthy or extended conversations for 20 miles.

Maybe you should take the car out on some back roads and 'play' with all of your gizmos on it? Great way to get used to it and comfortable driving the new car with confidence.

I don't care what anyone is driving. I just envy the fact they can drive. Enjoy your new ride to the fullest. Take it for a spin just for me...o.k.? :D That would make me happy. I'm so happy you have a new van you can enjoy and fits your needs. Good for you!

Thanks for the nice compliment on our-my tiling job. Don't know when we'll get to the bathrooms and hallway but we will and it will get done. That leaves just the bedrooms to be dealt with later.

Don't feel too bad about the linoleum. It is practical and serves a purpose. If you can't get around to tiling large area rugs strategically place and furniture cleverly arranged (bed over the worse part of linoleum, etc.) hides a multitude of sins and can freshen up the place until you can get around to the tile. Just DON'T pay a company of big box store to install it for you! Hire a cheap handy man or enlist local friends who have done the work before. You'll save several hundred to several thousand dollars!!!

Speaking of area rugs mine arrived yesterday as did the pad. Both were from different companies so that made me extremely happy as I received them simultaneously and can lay them down. Very nice rug. Most certainly exceeded my expectations in terms of quality and looks. (I ordered it on line). I kind of have it tossed down on the floor and put the pad down with the wrong side facing up (eye roll) but when dearest gets a day off he'll help me arrange it properly. I'll include some photos when I get it together.

Got the majority of the cleaning done and back up to my standards. Still have more to do and need to seriously purge my closet (Groan) and organize the filing cabinets (bigger groan).

Any Spring projects in the works for you?

Have a great day.
Peace. Out.
TTC

OMG, spring projects? An extremely abbreviated list: paint bathroom, finish painting kitchen, find radiator covers in basement somewhere and paint them, replace electrical fixture in bathroom, replace towel rings in bathroom, replace outlet covers in hall and bathroom, ditto lightswitch covers, fix patio door, side door, front door and other doors (one of the things I like about this house is lots of doors, but they are each broken a different way), find bathroom sink drain plug, find screen for window, get rid of extra piano, figure out better bathroom door solution, install ceiling fan in little room, get rid of stuff from my father's room, clean off back patio, remove chain link fence, fix tiny bathroom, purchase and install new garage door, new planters for in front of garage, I am out of breath.

As you can see, I think none of those are jobs I can do and some of them Ray can't even do.

Oh yeah, little rugs don't work with wheel chair. Even carpet doesn't work well. Only hard floors. Clearly, tile is best! We have hardwood floors in most of the house but there are tracks of where the wheelchair goes. We get the sanded and refinished periodically but it doesn't last at all.

Hi Carrie,
Yep...Spring projects! Huge eye roll. Sounds like you have as many to do as I. Oh well, what would we do if we didn't have all this 'stuff' to do? We complain when we're busy and then complain when we're 'bored', right? Never a happy medium. So, I opt for being overly busy as opposed to being bored out of my skull.

Not funny but kind of funny about your doors. It always seems not just one of anything at a time can get defunct. It is always everything and all at once. :D I'm with you on lots of doors but unfortunately we don't have them. Reason why I despise Ranch Style homes and the 'open floor plans' they're so fond of out here and in most subdivisions. I call it lack of privacy and 'open to the public'.

Although I am obsessive about being clean and neat it never seems to fail the one day I DON'T do my dishes right away, make the bed, have a basket of CLEAN underwear I was folding sitting out on the counter or forget my brassier is hanging off the bathroom door knob (oops) someone inevitably stops over for some reason.
I like doors for these reasons.

I also don't like the fact that first or second time visitors get to 'view' the entirety of my home and its contents when I have not chosen to give them a tour of it. Not that I think people are casing the joint to come and steal but if I don't know someone well I just don't like them viewing my entire home. It feels invasive.

I've always appreciated 2 story homes for this reason but out here they are immensely impractical when it comes to the cost of air conditioning and heating considerations.

Sorry to hear the rugs won't work in regards to the wheel chair. That's a bummer. I do know there is some really nice linoleum and in terms of carpet there are a lot of flat weaves and low profile ones. The kind resembling what you see in office and public buildings but much nicer and far more stylish for the home. Might be a consideration.

Hardwood floors. Sigh. Used to dream of them. Reconsidered when I realized the cost of maintenance to keep them up to par. I did look at some of the new flooring that looks like wood but isn't. A lot of it is very convincing (fooled me) and quite stylish and would probably work as well as your hardwood floors in terms of the wheel chairs. Nice plus is that the maintenance and cost of would be cut in half. Have you ever considered this option?

Anyway, in terms of Spring projects today is one day I need to work. I have a huge Aloe to plant. Neighbor gave it to me. Was digging a whole bunch up from his yard and giving them away for free as he wants to plant something different. Need to find the pots to 2 shrubs Lowe's claimed were full sun, water wise, guaranteed to live in AZ. They've shriveled to a pathetic pile of brown crispy leaves that resemble corn flakes. Need to do both my and my elderly neighbor's watering and weeding.

Have to lay out tile to 'guestimate' how much of that and what we will need to keep in terms of mortar for our hallway and bath. That way I can figure out the remainder to be returned and get my credit card credited. I'd like to get this done tonight as Dave is off the next 2 days and I'd really like to get that stuff out of our garage.

And there's more for the rest of the week and next and next and....
You know the feeling.
Beats being bored I guess. :D

Have a great day. Will get with you soon.
AG

Here's some of the latest blooms. Gotta love the fact that these tiny cacti produce the most amazing blooms relative to their size. Also the Aloes and Agaves are in bloom which are attracting the humming birds. YIPPEE, hummingbirds! :D
The torch cactus (3rd picture) is getting ready to literally explode with multiple blooms. You can see 3 almost ready to pop. They'll be open in two or three days from now!
Have a great day.
AG

See, we already HAVE the hardwood floors, so we would have to rip them out to install something different, which really doesn't make sense. The handyman guy is coming this morning to start work and I am so excited.

I have had insomnia on and off for the past many years, and every once in a while it's like my bidy says "OMG, you need sleep." and I sleep all night and half of the next day. That was last night, I was coming off a big stretch of not sleeping at all and then I hit a night when I can't sleep enough. I am in the living room in my recliner juast waiting fpr for him tor show uo and thnjng of mroe and more projedsz2

Good Morning,
Makes sense to just re-do the hardwood floors since you already have them. Sigh...what a job though. Makes navigating through the house difficult and irritating for any person able bodied or not. You have both my sympathy and empathy considering you are in a wheel chair. I hope the inconvenience doesn't last too long and your handyman is relatively efficient and quick with this job.

Get you on the insomnia thing. Same with me. I don't think mine is meds related. I think it is more the lack of physical exertion since I no longer work and come home 'tired' and a lack of mental stimulation often. Maybe this is why my garden has grown considerably and I build raised beds lifting the brick and cementing it together by myself instead of letting my husband help and why my house has been cleaner than ever?

If I exert myself beyond belief I feel good and am tired and sleep well. Of course my seizures and occasional migraines will knock me out like an elephant tranquilizer for 2 or 3 days and all I do is sleep.

If not I am up before the chickens (They tell me I'm making too much noise and waking them up...LOL). I'll get everything done and be asleep by 2:00 in the afternoon. Then I'm up again at 7:00p.m. and raring to go until 3:00a.m when I finally feel like I can go to sleep again. Not a conducive schedule to getting meals cooked for DH before work, taking care of general business on the phone and/or computer when real humans are available to talk to, or shopping. (Can't do that. DH and others are either working or sleeping.)

Hate sports. Exercise in spurts. I'll get really into something like Pilates for months on end and then not look at it for 2 years. I'm more into calisthenics if I were to go to the gym. Basic sit ups, knee and side bends, leg lifts, etc. Now days they got some crazy stuff going on with ropes, and weird bands and kettle bell weights(???)

Always despised aerobics. Feel like I'm auditioning for Broadway. Never could dance. True "White Girl Syndrome" to the extreme. No rhythm, timing, coordination. Can't follow the person leading the class and I often wind up 2 or 3 steps behind and crashing into everyone next to me. Tried Billy Blank's Tai Boa (sp?) at home one time. After 5 minutes thought I was going to do myself a mischief so I donated the C.D. to Good Will (LOL).

Hate the gym. Never liked the concept of having to pay to go someplace to exercise in public and be around a whole bunch of sweaty, smelly people in an enclosed space. Ewwww! Also don't like being 'watched' if it is even only briefly. Embarrassing as it may sound I don't know how to work half the equipment either. It is so computerized and technical that I spend more time looking at the monitors and focusing on them so I don't do something stupid than I do actually working out.

I'll stick to lifting brick, shoveling holes, moving heavy plants, sweating in the sun, and pushing a vacuum cleaner and scrubbing floors on my hands and knees thank you!

As for projects I have tons to do! Maybe if you came over to help assist me you would get inspired and not have to 'think' of what to do. (LOL). You'd be chock full of ideas by the time you got home!!!

Am rather proud of myself in that I FINNNNNALLLY got my closet organized. Shoes and clothes picked up off the floor. Long sleeve and long pants on one side, short sleeve and shorts/ skirts on the other so I can put things in the space under them in the closet. I can't organize dressy/casual or summer/winter. Underneath the 'short' side I stack containers of sweaters (getting worn less often due to our crazy weather), sweats, leggings (got about 15 pair as I live in them and they're pretty much my 'at home' uniform), my work-out clothes (LOL) and you know the 'grubbies' ( stuff you only wear to garden in, lay tile in, clean the garage, paint in, etc.). Shoes, shoes, shoes, boots, boots, boots...sigh. That's always an exercise in creativity when it comes to storage. I manage.

Now that the closet is 'organized' I just need to go through items to pull out of it so I can donate them to Good Will.

Only thing I hate about houses out here is they think that because you have a small home you want small bedrooms and a small closet. GRRRRRR!!!
We 'downsized' from a home that was 1,659 sq.ft. to one that is 1,300 sq. ft. Reason being we wanted to move from Florence (Ass Crack, AZ) to Casa Grande (nicer, more city, better class of people). In Florence we had a huuuge living room we never lived in because we had a loft in which we spent all of our time upstairs in. Great big waste of space. The 3rd bedroom I was using as a studio to paint/office. It was too big for this function in all honesty and again another waste of space. Closets were still small though. GRRRRR!

The nicer thing with our smaller home is that we still have 3 bedrooms. The master is large but the other 2 are smaller than the 2 we had in Florence. We still have a big living room but no loft so now we USE the living room. We still have 2 bathrooms (our other had a 1/2 bath downstairs). Nice change here is we have a laundry room. In Florence we had a literal closet with sliding doors that only fit a washer and dryer and nothing else and that was upstairs in the hallway by the loft! (???). All in all I don't feel we really sacrificed anything or like we are living 'smaller'.

I think I had explained our house sold in 10 days, the one we found in Tucson was uninhabitable and we had less than 12 days to find a new place to live before we were homeless...literally!!! So we had very little time to shop around, be overly picky about amenities, or nit-pick over the condition of carpet, lack of tile, etc. We took the best for the money, neighborhood, and that fit our general needs.

As for home projects well now we have them in abundance. Paint, tile (need to finish hallway and bathrooms), new window blinds (hate cheap metal mini blinds!), new carpet, new counter tops. Present ones are nice but are laminate. Don't want that. Can deal with it but would prefer Corion counter tops like my old house (I'm dreaming) or at least subway tile. Subway tile is shaping up to be the nicer and more cost effective treatment. All we really spent money on were the beautiful bamboo blinds. Matched in every room of the house. Bought great curtains too.

Our other house we were spoiled. We had it built from the ground up and picked everything we wanted and it was all brand spanking new. This house is about 12 years old when we got it. The guy took care of it very well but he was a bachelor and put the bare minimum/lowest priced stuff in the house when he had it built. (Guys, right?)

I keep reminding my husband of these things when we 'have to' do these projects. O.K. when I tell him why we have to do these things. He's starting to 'get it' when he sees the improvements happening. That is making me happy.

So, I too got loooots of projects planned. I just don't have lots of money. Any Ideas there? I know plasma sells for about $30.00 a pint! I really want my bamboo blinds! (LOL).

Have a great day.
AG.

Song For the day: "Our House" by Madness :D

P.S. Feel the Bern!!! I sure am.

Yeah, I feel the same way: I don't ever get really, physically tired any more. The reason we belong to the Y is all because of me! They have specially adapted equipment for use by people in wheelchairs. I wheel up and lift or pull or push, whatever. In my regular life, I just don't use that many muscles. My WC is power, I might have had the strength to wheel myself around but my tendons and ligaments wouldn't be up to it.

So the best thing at the Y is an accessible recumbent bike. Ray has to transfer me onto it, and then using my arms I push back and forth (I guess like ski poles?) and my legs, which have been buckled to the pedals, go around. It sounds stranger than it is, but it is fatiguing, stretches my legs and gives a cardio workout.

I would NEVER go to the gym otherwise and in fact I had this Y recommended to me for years before I actually checked it out. even there, the first few days I bike after a week or so off, I am exhausted. and can sort of sleep. After that, though, it doesn't help.

Hi Carrie,
More exercise than I need right now. Eye roll...
Lots of weeding to do in the yard, garage full of tossed around pots,plant covers, potting soil and tools that need to be organized. Dusting still to be done. That's a never ending battle.

Sounds like the Y is a good idea for you physically. Any exercise, if done right, can definitely be fatiguing. Hope it helps you out both sleep wise and body wise and makes you feel better.

Me, any physical exertion always makes me feel great mentally and makes me sleep well. Physically I pay the toll for the next day or two but I know it is doing my body good so I push myself.

I keep toying with the idea of getting a bicycle. This seems to be about as close to driving as I will be able to get. Exercise is great also. Refuse to wear one of those dorky helmets though. Never did as a kid. Fell off the bike, rubbed some spit on the 'boo-boo', and kept going. Hit my head on everything imaginable since I've had seizures. Some things as hard as concrete including concrete its self. I'm still going.

Husband said my knick name ought to be Timex. I take a licking and keep on ticking! (LOL)

Having some plant lust lately and the desire to acquire. I think it is just a case of Spring fever here. Everything has gone from dormant to 'WOW' and has been growing exponentially by leaps and bounds and blooming like crazy. Of course this makes on feel happy and successful with the garden and creates all the more desire for more...more...more to fill up the yard. I've been enjoying walking outside everyday to see what's new and exciting.

The activity will die down though come late May or very early June and things will go dormant and just be boring. Nothing to do then except weed, water occasionally and watch things wilt. That's when I get into my 'building' projects, like the raised beds, and buying hanging baskets for next year. The baskets will be my next year's spring project and planning on what to add to the yard.

Basically Summer is our Winter...and now you can laugh at our weather and the fact we're living like troglodytes and you're out enjoying the sun, fun, sand and surf.

So what is your garden doing presently and what are you working on in terms of flowers and the yard when not obsessing and being frantic with the indoor house projects?

Have a good day.
Peace. Out.
TTC.

Here's the latest blooms and what's to come!

1.) 7 blooms to open simultaneously within the next few days! YIPPEE!!!

2.) Neighbor's Aloes in bloom (envious they're not mine!)

3. & 4.) Yes the brown-purplish-reddish color is perfectly normal on this plant. Flower is such a lovely pale whitish-pink and matches so beautifully.

5.) Really odd little plants even by my standards. See the black "fuzzy" bumps on it? I'll post periodic pics as these progress. Veeeery weird but very cool ultimately. One of the weirdest plants I've seen! (White dots are normal)

Up here the forsythia and crocus is beginning to die down. There are sprouts everywhere and this is when we feel justified in all the planting we did last fall. I traded with someone here and got a box full of iris. DH didn't remember that we had planted them! They won't won't bloom for at least a month, but the suspense!

I have very wonderful memories of riding a bike as a young person! Not as a child, but as a too poor for a car. When we were really young we were allowed to ride up to the big cross street in every direction, then a little older up to the traffic light in every direction. It feels independent!

Hi Carrie,
Bikes are great! I too also have fond memories. Very practical as modes of transportation also. I didn't have a car until I was 22 because I couldn't afford one. Thankfully when I was 18 I lived in Pittsburgh which is truly set up for walking and the bus and subway systems were incomparable. A car is a nuisance there.

Ohio, and L.A. unfortunately you were hamstrung unless you had one. Truly, even if I could drive and I had a choice of using really good, efficient and fast public transportation or driving I would take the subway and buses. I also liked just walking. There was so much to 'see' and 'learn' that you just either took for granted or simply overlooked when you drove. Plus the exercise was great! :D

Out here, Tucson is about the closest thing to resembling a large city back East in terms of good public transportation and 'walkability'. It is also very liberal and artsy and has such a good vibe. Too bad we couldn't move there. :( Oh, well sure love going there whenever possible.

Sounds like your garden is kicking into high Spring gear. The super early Spring flowers are gone and now it is time for the true Spring-Summer blooms to start making their appearance. Love Iris! The more the merrier!

\They make me think of Vincent Van Gogh every time I see them. Purple-blue and green. What a great color combo and so 'rich' and lush looking. Growing any Peonies? I love those and they smell sooooo good.

Cacti are still doing what cacti do in the Spring. They're on plant crack just growing away and blooming repeatedly. They'll be comatose come Summer though just like the rest of us out here in AZ.

Happy to say we got rain yesterday and today. First time since the 30th of January! Really needed it. Chances off and on through the week but they're small. We pretty much got the majority of it yesterday and today. Hopefully we'll luck out and some rain will sneak in on us in May. One can hope as I am dreading Summer out here this year. GROAN

BTW have not heard from Jim or Kay either here or on the other forum. Any idea what's up with them? Are they o.k.? Don't see hide nor hair of Bets on ATP either. :(

Anyway, Wise Cactus, ever the tender heart surprised me today with his generosity. Really knocked my socks off this morning when I stepped outside. When I thanked him, He said, "Even though it is raining today there is no reason not to spread sunshine. Here's some from me to you. Make sure you share it with others."

Talk to you soon.
Be well.
Peace. Out.
TTC

Wow! It looks like a bouquet of flowers on a table. Or like a cactus in bloom, I guess.

One of the things that bugs me is that when we travel, we always have to rent a car because public trans is pretty much out. But that's from growing up in Boston.

Irises won't bloom until late May or early June. Around same time as poppies.

But part of makes them great, to me is the anticipation.

Wow! It looks like a bouquet of flowers on a table. Or like a cactus in bloom, I guess.

One of the things that bugs me is that when we travel, we always have to rent a car because public trans is pretty much out. But that's from growing up in Boston.

Irises won't bloom until late May or early June. Around same time as poppies.

But part of makes them great, to me is the anticipation.

YES. I love peonies, more like Memorial Day, I think. Memorial Day is also the absolute last day you can buy lobelia. Better to buy it earlier in May.

This message was edited Apr 11, 2016 4:48 PM

Hi,
Sorry. I've been really busy. You know how that goes. Either busy doing 900 nit-picky-ticky-tacky little things that consume days or you're bored out of your skull looking for stuff to do. Sigh.
Glad you liked the Torch Cacti (Trichocereus Grandiflorus) flowers. they really are quite spectacular. Cool thing about this plant is that it blooms repeatedly. When those flowers pass new buds start popping up all over the cactus which means new blooms. YIPPEE.

One just the one cactus I have 9 buds on one arm alone! There's about 6 on its other arm and several little ones on the tiny new arms it has developed. Didn't take the time to count the other two Torch Cacti's buds but they just keep on a comin'!

Only bad thing about this cacti (and most) is that the blooms are fleeting lasting only a few days to maybe a week at the most. :[ That is why this is such an exciting and exuberant time for us here in the desert and everyone goes stark raving mad with glee when they see this 'eye candy'. Think of it. We live in a desert. 118 degree summers and the plants go comatose and shrivel with horror and disgust. Fall they just kind of hang out and try to regenerate a tad. Winter well they get bombarded with rain (or at least used to), cloudy days (used to) and cold nights (now freezing). They're all trying to avoid freezing or rotting literally. Survival mode for 8.5 months. :[ So....when that other 3.5 months come around here it is cause celebre!

Our planting season is winding up. It usually starts the beginning of March or can be the last week of February if there's no chance of frost/freeze until the last week of April maaaybe you can stretch it to the first week of May. After that we're done. Plants have to have time to get established, grow a bit and learn how to take the steadily increasing degrees of heat and quantities of blazing sun.

Hear you on the rent a car thing. Lack of public transportation just stinks!!! Let's see we had "Black Lives Matter", "Gay Pride/Right to Marry", and the present "LGBT bathroom right/privilege" and the opposing "Freedom of Religion Law" movements. Presently it is "Fight for $15.00 and right to unionize."

I keep waiting for the disabled to kick into gear and start screaming about S.S., transportation and services. And as for women....cricket, cricket, cricket....

Makes me think of that old cell phone add. "Can you hear me now? No? Can you Hear me now?" , "Nooooooooo, I can't hear you!" Sigh!

Have a great day.
Be well.
Peace. Out.
TTC

Songs for the day: Thunderclap Newman, "We Have Got To Get It Together"
Buffalo Springfield, "Something In the Air"
Bob Dylan, "These Times, They Are A Changin' "

Those flowers sound amazingly wonderful.

Today, or this week at least, is when black ants come out. Not the tiny black sugar ants, the big fleshy black ants. They come into the house in one day or maybe one week. They are EVERYWHERE! Crawling on the wall, creeping along the edge of the bathroom and snaking along the border of the fireplace. It's like an ant convention is taking place inside the walls. I believe ant eggs that were laid months ago in walls or inside sticks all hatch on the same day, probably triggered by rising temperature or longer day-length. Either way, it's darn annoying.

Ewwww! I hate ants. They're such a pain in the butt and so hard to get rid of even after you spray. Time for the exterminator. Sigh. What a flaming mess. I'm hoping they don't get into your food/kitchen or bedrooms. I'm sorry you're having such an issue with them. :[ GRRRRR!

Summer here is Black Widow season. YIKES!!!
Bad enough I hate spiders in any way, shape and form and they make my skin crawl but those things give me a massive coronary and I start screeching literally in terror and panic.
Summer time they are active because they're looking for cool, dark, and damp-ish spots for obvious reasons and that is also the time they lay eggs. Usually garage corners, in boxes, pots and stuff you have in the garage stored, by faucets and taps and sprinklers outside. (Aside from lowering the water bill it is another reason we shut off our automatic sprinkler system). They liked to hide in corners of the patio or under the crevices of the house and under the plants and rocks. EWWWW!!

We have to do regular 'spider patrol' around this time. They are more active at night and more visible. The two triangles on their back show up kind of 'whitish-yellow' even though they don't change color. They're red/orange all the time but for some reason when you hit them with a flash light they show up 'whitish-yellow'.

I can not tell you, especially in our last place that was more rural, how many in 7 years total my husband has killed. As for me when I've seen them, I've emptied copious amounts of any chemical that says 'kills spiders' and if that wasn't handy many a Black Widow has met a painful death with a trowel, shovel, rock or shoe. They are subsequently stomped and ground into a pile of mush.

Also have to watch the dog. Greyhounds aren't the stupidest breed but they're not the smartest either. Zoe is overly curious and likes to 'look' and sniff at my plants a lot and sometimes paws at the ground around them. I usually think it is for the tiny little lizards she's so fond of eating but it wouldn't surprise me if she had tried to eat some spider or the spider decided to 'eat' her back.

The one year we have no clue what she got into in our yard but she wound up very, very, sick and started to go into renal failure. We almost lost her. Since then she is not allowed out to potty in the Summer unless she is supervised and being watched! Hey, $1,400.00 vet bills are a luxury we can't afford! We also can't afford to be bit ourselves! Ewwwwwwww. I hate spiders.

We've never had a real problem with them per se aside from having to kill the random few every now and then so it never warranted getting an exterminator but I know people who have had real infestation problems. What a nightmare that would be.

As for plants remember I told you about that 'freak' plant I had, even by my standards. Well this is what happened in a span of less than 12 days. Watch the 'black' fuzzy bumps. Weeeird.

Here's a front view to give you an idea of the size of the flower in relation to the cactus. These flowers are very fleeting and only last a day or two. I was surprised to see it out this a.m. as they usually bloom at night.

Have a good day.
Peace. Out.
TTC.

Song for the day: "Boris The Spider" by the Who (real song; guy shares my sentiment on creepy crawly things)

Oh goody, goody, goody! They only last a day though. Here and gone already. :{ Told you these plants were weeeeird! Pictures of what's growing for you now?
Hope you're well.
Hugs
AG

Until it's warm enough for me to be outside, I can't really stay outside long enough for pictures. We have 6 amaryllis in pots on the piano and 2 Home Depot foliage house plants behind me.

We are actually just unwrapping stuff from the move, still. Ray just said "for people with as many glass vessels as we have, we don't have flowers inside very often!" I love glass, especially blue glass, but clear is ok too. I always imagined I would have a shelving system to display all my pretty dishes on. Not so much.

Ray has been working hard all weekend and we now can see the garage floor! This is exciting for me.

Hi,
Sorry. Just been busy,busy, busy. You know how that goes. Either nothing to do or you're pulling your hair out.
I bet those Amaryllis are just gorgeous. Red, White or combo? I had a beautiful red one. Bloomed once. Put the bulb in storage so to speak. Dark corner of the patio in a pot. Our winters are 'cold' enough for it to rest. Only problem was Zoe thought it was a toy and I saw her running around out back with it in her mouth!!! YIKES. They are poisonous to dogs.

Needless to say my bulb went bye-bye and I was lucky I saw her doing this and she had decided chewing on it wasn't a good idea yet. Greyhounds. Great dogs. Not the brightest breed. Not dumb dogs, just not the brightest either. It's their curiosity that makes them appear this way. It over rides their common sense and instincts. I describe them not so much as dogs but more like long legged cats. You know what they say about curiosity and cats right? I'm pretty sure it applies to Greyhounds too. (Eye roll). It's worse than having a 2 year old in the house at times. It's also half the fun of them. :]

I do not do 'house plants' any longer except for two. Dog treats them like a salad bar. The two I have (one a rather thorny cactus) she shows no interest in, thankfully.

Moving. SIGH...GROAN. What a pain in the butt. Your glass collection sounds wonderful. You should get something to put it on. A 'sunny' spot in the house too would be nice as the sun would make the glass shine, bounce light around, and really show off the blues.

As for glass in AZ not the wisest choice. Desert, dry, dusty and at times windy + glass= dust you can write your name in every other day despite owning stock in Windex. Like an idiot I bought all glass top tables (Kitchen, Coffee and 2 end tables, Sofa table and a little glass top and black and wrought iron one for the bedroom.). Husband and I take turns writing "Luv U" on them and "Clean Me." ROFL! Also have dark wood furniture...what a great way to highlight dust as well.

Thankfully I see cleaning as an 'obligation' and necessary compulsion due to being Buddhist and the rigid anal-retentive standards drilled into me by my mother and immigrant female relatives that still wash walls and get up at 3:30 a.m. to iron!

If it weren't for these 2 facts I'd be waving the white flag. It would not be over the furniture either. It would be in defeat. The dust would win!

Very happy you can see the garage floor. YIPPEE. Isn't that exciting. I think so because I share your pain. It isn't the floor in the garage it's our walls. Everything is crammed on the shelving units. Looks like Sanford and Son. Been literally a year on the 14th and still can't find stuff.

Hope you find all of your things. If not the missing stuff is probably somewhere with mine in a black hole.

Oh...heard from Jim, Kay, and Nadine. WOW are they going through some rough stuff. They did say they wanted to contact you. If not why don't you contact them. You don't have to leave DG. If you don't talk to them personally but would like to via e.mail come over on a 'fake name'. You can "Tree-Mail" them privately and let them know it is you and not to use your real name. (http://garden.org/users/join/AgaveGirl1)

Just a thought. If you don't already have their address and/or phone I'll give it to you.

Stay well. Keep warm. It is 97 degrees again today!!

Song for the day: "Heat Wave" Martha and the Vandellas :D

This morning's surprise

I signed up for ATP; I can just Tree-mail as myself. I've just been extremely distracted (and distractable) lately. I will amble over and send them a note. This MS stuff....gets to me sometimes. I read stuff about epilepsy all the time, I guess in the course of my normal reading, I think of you all the time; would you like me to start emailing you links?

I got to a point where I JUST DIDN'T want to hear what anyone else thought I should be doing about MS. High fat, low fat, lots of exercise, lots of rest, just leave me alone! So I leave other people alone too. But I am just letting you know. I have an aunt who would always send me physical newspaper clippings of articles she had read that mentioned MS at all. Very annoying. I don't want to be annoying.

I am extremely excited to be catching sight of my garage floor. There is kind of a Catch-22. The washing machine is out there. The garage door is 50 years old and probably made out of plywood. So the cold definitely gets into the garage! A few yers ago the washing machine pipes froze, so to avoid that, we leave the door to the garage from the kitchen just slightly ajar. So the kitchen is cold too. As Ray has been cleaning out the garage, I have been cowering in the living room under my electric throw. My plan is: replace the garage door. (That is scheduled for May 15!) Then the garage door will not let the cold into the garage and the garage will warm up. Then it will be warm enough for me to go out there and help organize the sh*t. Then we can store stuff out there in an organized fashion, to the laundry in a timely way, etc.

I love Amaryllis. I used to save the bulbs and keep them as house plants. (They would eventually start blooming in the summer, because I didn't keep them dark.) But the joy they give me blooming as forced bulbs is completely worth it even if I throw them away!

Could you plant something spiny in the pot with the Amaryllis bulb, to keep Zoe out? I guess it's one of those compromises you make with yourself. I buy new bulbs every year; you treat Zoe like a salad bar. (OOOF too funny!!! I read that over and decided not to correct because I was so amused.)

Agave, case in point, I was just reading about medical marijuana, and this particular article said cannabis helps a lot with epileptic seizures.

Wow, I had a lot of catch up reading to do. I need to get my own screen reading program. You guys have been busy.
The dyslexia has been kickin' my ass. Kay thinks it is all the stress . Faith lost her battle with the brain cancer and Tigger has been pushing to return to L.A. I don't believe she is stable enough to cope there, but she is a 40-year-old woman and I can't tell her what to do with her life. I caved in and bought her a ticket back for her b'day. I do have to admit I have been sleeping a little better and feeling more energetic since she arrived in CA safely. I didn't have insomnia or problems with dyslexia during my tours in the Middle East. If I can handle that, it seems like I should be able to handle a grown woman who acts like a 16-year-old. Kay laughs and laughs when I say that. It is hard to credit that Tigger and ultra-responsible, conscientious Melinda are sisters. It is like the Tigger song says. "Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy. Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun. The most wonderful thing about Tigger is she's the only one.
Fenny has a perimeter collar. My mistake was disengaging the shock function after she learned her boundaries. The warning beep is all the reminder she needs 99^% of the time, but she is some sort of hound. When a deer, rabbit, fox, coyote, bobcat comes into her territory, she is going to chase it and she will totally ignore the beeping collar. It's coming back from these chases that she gets into trouble. Nadi will not stand for my engaging the shock feature until Fenny has fully recovered. She is afraid the shock itself will induce a seizure. She chaperons Fenny for now whenever Fenny goes outside.
Love the tile work. My nephews in CO do that kind of thing commercially. It is heavy labor.
I'm with Carrie regarding carpet and wheelchairs. After pulling all the carpet in this place up, I'm not too keen on the cleanliness factor of carpet either. I couldn't believe how much sand there was in the padding and on the floor beneath. It was so much sand, it looked like we lived right on the beach. That surprised me because it was a beige color and look good on the surface.
Nothing but the absolutely necessary home improvement projects for us. We are focused on paying everything off. Counting the days. If I can keep up the occasional double payments, it will be about two more years before the property and buildings are free and clear.
Awesome new ride, Carrie! The heated mirrors and stuff sound like useful features in your part of the world.
Don't forget those wonderful exotic tape worms some MS patients are going for. LOL. I'm afraid to read too much medical research. I'm afraid the pain will talk me into some stupid new procedure or drug that I will live to regret.
Enjoy your DG/ATP dual citizenship, Carrie. I do. It is going to take all the web-based plant information sources I can find to get everything labeled again.
The garden is a mess. In addition to the year of neglect, we are totally reorganizing. Giving away as much as we can and putting what we are keeping into nursery pots. I had to move fast to have a road in and out. Moving plants that were in the way of the new driveway without the time to label and organize. With the bulbs especially, we don't know what's what. I just put things into whatever ground was available. The ground was extra fertile and the bulbs multiplied like crazy. We've landscaped my SIL's house in central Florida and are packing more up for Melinda, Kay's daughter who lives in Utica. We are considering landscaping my SIL's house in VT, but Kay isn't sure what would survive up there beyond the iris. It's a historical landmark house. There is probably a list of period plants we would have to stick with.
The next year or more it will be pot, identify and label the bulbs and perennials and plant more bee friendly wild plants, trees and shrubs that need minimal input. Perma-culture in other words. With the exception of the peaches, most of the fruit and nut trees can look after themselves.
It is almost time to harvest honey and I will need to either set up a new hive or add another super to the existing hive. ( A "super" in apiary speak is another level on the hive, another pantry for them to store their honey in.
Beyond that, it is weed and water, water and weed. Nature is watering enough to keep in-ground plants happy, but watering is a daily chore with the pots.
Kay now insist we need to take the weekends off. I'm not sure how we will manage it all with a 5-day work week, but we will give it a try.
I've seen more of the local beaches than I did when I lived in the city limits of Panama City Beach. I don't know if we can pull this off, but we will enjoy the attempt more by taking some time for ourselves.
It was a picnic at the Dothan Area Botanical Garden last weekend, not the beach.

Hi Carrie...and gang,
Not ignoring you here, just busy. should have time tonight to catch up.
TTC

Jim!!! You're alive!!! How are you, old pal? Long time. Sounds like you've got a lot going on. I'll be back later.

GTBB! (good to be back)

Hi Carrie!
Finally a moment to myself. No, don't find it annoying or invasive that you want to send me links or newspaper clippings. Actually it is quite thoughtful and I am flattered you have been learning a lot about Epilepsy.

I'm like you though. I get to the point of #$%* it. I don't need more info. Enough already. I could probably teach at a medical college based on what I know.

I need employers, S.S. and a government that understands not just my symptoms but that I'm not a liability. Tim, our friend that helped us do the tile works for S.S. Admin. here locally as a Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist said I will never get a job again. The same thing that happened at the grocery store will happen anywhere. The moment I have a seizure I will be harried, hounded, tormented, and written up to the point of being fired. It doesn't matter if I sign a waiver releasing them from workers comp liability. One it isn't 'legal', Two it isn't valid for a life time. I can come back 20 years later and claim some injury I got was due to being at work, Three even if nothing happens and all I need is a band aid then they are required to generate paperwork on why I need a band aid and that gets turned into the corporation. The incident is described. "Employee cut finger on piece of cardboard." Well, when they hear employee bruised side of face due to falling on it from having Epileptic seizure...you guessed it. Doesn't matter how capable, competent, reliable, qualified, effective or efficient I am. I am doomed. I could only keep my condition secret for so long.

Even under ideal situations with public transportation and a sit down job, how do I explain to a new employer a 5 year + work absence when I have no kids, have not gone back to school and am not running a business? When they call for a reference although my former employer can not say anything bad they CAN SAY, "I would not hire her again under any circumstances. If you have questions as to why ask her in your interview." That isn't a bad reference BUT would you call me back for a 2nd interview?

Tim said unless I had a very unique work at home situation with an extremely understanding boss or a very accommodating one who 'trusted me' not to make a worker's comp. claim I WILL NEVER be employed again.

And people wonder why I don't go to a doctor because I can't afford it. If I was terminally ill I would not seek treatment. Why bankrupt my husband, ruin our credit and our home and life savings and his future when I don't have one. Why? For what? I won't live any longer.

And then people wonder why I would all to willingly and happily move out of this country if I could afford it, with no remorse and no regrets. Gee...they just don't get why I support people like Bernie Sanders or think Obama is God for instituting a nationalized health care system. I dunno...do you?

I just keep on keeping on. If I bonk my head then I do. If I'm fortunate enough to get up then that is my good fortune and Karma. If not then it is simply my time and "God's Will, point and purpose" for me in the grand design and scheme of things in the Universe. It is what it is what it is what it is.....

As for medical marijuana. If you're happy and you know it clap your hands! If you're happy and you know and you really wanna show it...cheese grin and eat chocolate cake! :D Not sure if it would help much with the seizures as I had asked. Explanation with doctors is that it works on certain types of seizures and it is usually the oil.

Not sure if it would work on my 'seizure disorder' as I have Petite Mal seizures that are Clonic Tonic in nature and with atomisms.

If I'm going to spend $300.00 to get a med. m.j. card and pay $60.00 for an ounce of oil I'd rather pay $60.00 for a quarter ounce and roll, roll, roll my boat merrily down the stream! Pizza Hut delivers.

Brrrrr on that garage door situation! Only problem with old homes is old everything. SIGH. Have you thought about doing what we do out here? We wrap our pipes in sheets, plastic, blankets, whatever to keep them warm. I'm not sure if this would work but at least you could keep your door closed and your kitchen warmer. May 15th isn't too much longer. It is already the last week of April. Can you believe we are already going on 5 months into 2016! Has it moved inordinately fast or is it just me?

Amaryllis are so lovely and nice to enjoy especially all year. Uh as far as mixing something with it I'd have to think about compatible watering needs and not giving it root rot. Good idea though. I could research it.

Ah yes, Zoe and the all you can eat salad bar. I had a monster Arthurian That was absolutely mammoth and bloomed repeatedly. I had a gorgeous Hibiscus. There were numerous lovely green leafy things in my house. Dog systematically ate them all despite my moving them (tall dog, can reach) and spraying them with Bitter Apple and then never failed to regurgitate them up on the tile or some other highly undesirable place.

Now this animal never chewed a thing. Not my good purse, expensive shoes, furniture, and she doesn't counter surf. What dog do you know where you can leave raw meat to defrost on a counter or dinner on the table and walk away and still have it be there? But...stupid dog ate my plants. Killed every one of them. So now we have a cacti with big thorns in a pot and one lone remaining house plant in a corner on a high table where she can not reach.

She discovered in .03 seconds upon first sniff that cacti, Agave and Aloes were not going to be on the menu when she first tried to approach them outside (TEE-HEE) and has subsequently left every last one of them alone! :D Never saw a head snap back so fast in my life!
Her leaf munching salad bar is officially closed! :D

Oh BTW, welcome to ATP. Nice people and nice place.

Jim and gang get with you guys in a bit.

Got more cacti blooms. Wise cacti has been showering me with bouquets of love before he blisters my butt this summer. Will post them later.

Hugs to all,
TTC

Oh...has anyone heard from Bets?

I suspected as much. MJ for MS just helps with spasticity. Thanks, but my baclofen pump is dealing with that. :)

I hear you about your dog and your plants....hahahahaha! Smart dog, not to eat spines.

I bet that feels sad, hearing your tile friend talk about not working. I used to get doctor references about why, for instance, I needed bladder surgery, which was elective surgery. It's hard reading a letter to a urologist from my then-neurologist, No, she's not going to grow out of it or spontaneously get better or a cure will be invented; it's only going to get worse. Even if they had discovered a cure for MS that year, I had too much damage to my muscles by then. And of course, they DIDN'T discover a cure for MS.


As for my cold garage, yes, we had an electric blanket around the washing machine once we paid the plumber to come fix it. The garage is about half to one-third the surface area of the house, so if only it were converted into usable space, our house would be less cramped and squeezed. IF a new garage door 1.warms up the whole house, 2.makes it more secure (you will need more than an old screwdriver to break into the house now) 3.won't look so ghetto 4.We gave the electric blanket to my daughter and her boyfriend.


Ray just convinced me to take Social Security early. I will post about if I figure out how to explain it to myself.